Senator Chris Dodd takes on the credit card industry

New legislation could make it unlawful for credit cards to raise interest rates and cut credit limits without warning consumers.
(Flickr user squeakymarmot (cc: by-nc-sa))

This week may end with a new playbook for the credit card industry in America. President Obama summoned representatives from 14 banks that issue credit cards to the White House for talks today. But the legislative engine behind these changes is Senator Chris Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut, who has been pushing credit card regulation for a long time. He joins The Takeaway now to discuss the proposed changes to credit card accountability, responsibility and disclosure that he hopes to push through Congress. This bill would offer new consumer protections, including banning practices such as “any time, any reason” interest rate increases.

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Comments [1]

A couple of states, like VP Joe Biden's Delaware, have consistently fought credit card regulations. Biden himself has a terrible voting record on these issues.

As Elizabeth Warren has pointed out repeatedly, card issues have complete freedom to charge whatever interest rate they want whenever they want. It's as if you bought an airline ticket, got to the airport and were told as you waited to board that your ticket had just doubled in price -- pay up or leave.